Met begins Binyam Mohamed investigation
By politics.co.uk staff
Allegations that former Guantanamo detainee Binyam Mohamed was tortured are to be investigated by the Metropolitan police.
In a statement released this afternoon the Met announced a team of detectives working to deputy assistant commissioner Sue Akers had been selected to oversee the criminal investigation.
Mr Mohamed spent four years in detention at the US’ Guantanamo Bay detention camp for suspected terorrists in Cuba before being released to Britain.
He was first detained in Pakistan in 2002 before being rendered to Morocco and Afghanistan where, according to Mr Mohamed, he was repeatedly tortured by US agents despite the British authorities being aware of his ill-treatment.
The British government has repeatedly denied involvement in torture. But Mr Mohamed has directly accused them of complicity.
“I have met with British intelligence in Pakistan. I had been open with them. Yet the very people who I had hoped would come to my rescue, I later realised, had allied themselves with my abusers,” he said in a statement.
Attorney general Baroness Scotland asked the Met to investigate the allegations, it emerged today.
A statement from the Met said: “Enquiries will be conducted as expeditiously but thoroughly as possible and will follow the evidence to identify whether any offences have occurred.”
The enquiry team will liaise closely with the crown prosecution service, it added.
